Time to go back to the drawing board: organisation of primary school reading development in South Africa

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 findings highlighted concerns about reading literacy teaching quality in South African primary schools (Howie et al., 2007 Howie, S.J., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Scherman, V. and Archer, E. 2007. Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 summary report. South African children's reading literacy achievement, Pretoria, South Africa: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, University of Pretoria.  [Google Scholar]). In response, the national Department of Education (DoE, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d) has emphasised instructional practice improvement. However, little emphasis has been placed on the role of school organisation in learners’ reading success or failure. This article presents school organisation findings from a mixed methods study that explored South African Grade 4 teachers’ instruction practices and schooling conditions for reading literacy development. The analysis considered is based on the reclassification of the PIRLS 2006 sample according to class achievement levels on the PIRLS benchmarks and instructional language profiles. Findings from the PIRLS 2006 school questionnaire data are reported together with findings from case studies to illustrate differences and similarities in school organisation for reading literacy across a range of low- and high-performing schools.     

Why teachers use digital learning materials: The role of self-efficacy, subjective norm and attitude

Although Information and Communication Technology (ICT) seems a promising tool in an educational context, many teachers are reluctant to integrate it in their daily practice. A large scale survey was undertaken amongst primary and secondary school teachers in the Netherlands to explore possible determinants of the educational use of digital learning materials (DLMs) in order to develop interventions to reduce teachers’ reluctance to use ICT and more specifically to stimulate the use of DLMs. Basing on the Integrative Model of Behaviour Prediction it was conjectured that self-efficacy, attitude and subjective norm would take a central role in explaining the intention to use DLMs. Several other predictors were added to the conceptual model whose effects were hypothesized to be mediated by the three central variables. All conjectured relationships were found using mediation analysis on survey data from 1,484 teachers. Intention to use DLMs was most strongly determined by attitude, followed by self-efficacy. ICT skills was in its turn the strongest predictor of self-efficacy. Subjective norm played only a limited role in the intention to use DLMs. Basing on the outcome of this study, persuasive communication focusing on positive outcomes and skills based training seem appropriate interventions to promote a positive attitude towards DLM and improve self-efficacy in using DLMs.     

Artificial Morality: Top-down,Bottom-up,and Hybrid Approaches

A principal goal of the discipline of artificial morality is to design artificial agents to act as if they are moral agents. Intermediate goals of artificial morality are directed at building into AI systems sensitivity to the values, ethics, and legality of activities. The development of an effective foundation for the field of artificial morality involves exploring the technological and philosophical issues involved in making computers into explicit moral reasoners. The goal of this paper is to discuss strategies for implementing artificial morality and the differing criteria for success that are appropriate to different strategies.     

Body_machine? Encounters of the human and the mechanical in education,industry and science

This paper unveils the body_machine as a key element of dynamic mental maps that have come to shape both educational praxis and research. It traces and analyses instances in which the human and the mechanical encountered each other in metaphorical, material and visual forms, thereby blurring to some extent the boundaries between them while capturing and mobilising specific forms of knowing and acting. The paper studies, first, how certain ‘orienting frames of reference’ and associated ‘experimental systems’ managed to materialise around the body_machine and penetrate theory and praxis; and, second, what visual and textual sources related to a vocational school may reveal about where and how the body_machine has come to operate in education, industry and science. The paper centres on early twentieth-century photographs and analyses these not only as media presenting, representing and interrogating common thought and practice but also as agents of meaning-making around the body_machine.     

Professional field in the accreditation process: examining information technology programmes at Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences

In this paper, we analyse 53 Dutch accreditation reports in the field of information technology to assess the mechanisms of the reported involvement of the professional field in the undergraduate programmes of universities of applied sciences. The results of qualitative content analysis reveal a coupling effect in reporting on mechanisms of interaction. Although the involvement of the professional field is tightly coupled with the undergraduate programmes at universities of applied sciences at the strategic level, there is an under-representation of university-industry interaction on an operational level, which suggests the need to explore the actual interaction taking place between the professional field and the programmes. Simultaneously, our results indicate that accreditation reports are not able to provide a holistic picture of professional field engagement in the curriculum of undergraduate programmes at the operational level, which questions their role in acknowledging the role of industry in shaping and achieving intended learning outcomes. Perhaps policymakers should consider introducing other tools or standards for addressing the outcome of the engagement and the responsiveness of the programmes at universities of applied sciences to the professional field.     

Civilian-military co-operation strategies in developing new technologies

Dual use technology has been advocated as the solution for the twin problem of maintaining a high tech defence technology base and improving economic competitiveness. The concept of dual use technology turns out to be rather imprecise representing a multitude of different meanings. This paper focuses on one important aspect, notably the co-operation between civilian and military actors in developing a new technology, by analysing the evolution of a socio-technical network related to the development of an advanced battery in The Netherlands.The analytical framework used for interpreting the empirical case builds on theories of socio-technical networks and on two previous and complementary analyses in Research Policy on dual use technology. Our analysis of the dynamics underlying the evolution of the ‘battery network’ shows how the emerging notion of the battery’s duality became a window of opportunity for a co-operation strategy of either joint or concurrent development of the battery for both civilian and military applications. The interactions within the evolving network are steered by the search for expertise and funding.In view of the difficulties of realising civilian-military integrated joint development projects, the establishment of ‘dual capacity networks’ is suggested as part of a possible strategy towards an integrated civilian-military technology and industrial base.     

Pre-service Physics Teachers and Conceptual Difficulties on Temperature and Heat

In this article the ‘lesson preparation method’ was used to investigate pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, in particular their knowledge of pupils’ conceptual difficulties on temperature and heat. A relation is found between the conceptual difficulties pre-service teachers expect their pupils to have and the conceptual difficulties they themselves have or have had. The discussion considers what pedagogical content knowledge teacher educators should include in the initial or inservice teacher education curriculum.     

Two Decades of Cumulative Microtraining in The Netherlands: An Overview

ABSTRACT

In addition to recent meta‐analyses, the goal of this article is to give a narrative review and a meta‐analysis of 20 studies into the effectiveness of communication skills training programs, using a cumulative microtraining format (CMT). The aims of all training programs are directed at increasing knowledge of social skills, extension of the behavior repertoire and change of experience of communication situations (reduction of anxiousness and improvement of self‐confidence). Four groups of trainees are included in the study: (1) students, (2) paraprofessionals, (3) clients with problems in living, (4) communication skill trainers. The results of our meta‐analysis are comparable with the results of other meta‐analyses. The strongest effect is found for knowledge, but the effects for behavior and experience are also substantial. Explanations for the strong effects are: (1) the careful analysis of communication situations before the development of the training programs; (2) the cumulative character of the programs.     

A conceptualisation of whole‐class scaffolding

The concept of scaffolding refers to temporary and adaptive support, originally in dyadic adult–child interaction. It has become widely used, also in whole‐class settings, but often in loose ways. The aim of this paper is to theoretically and empirically ground a conceptualisation of whole‐class scaffolding so that it remains close to the origin of the scaffolding concept, but also provides scope for features not salient in one‐to‐one interaction. Drawing an analogy with Vygotsky's concept of Zone of Proximal Development we argue why the extension to whole‐class settings is justified. We further distinguish three key characteristics for whole‐class scaffolding—diagnosis, responsiveness and handover to independence—and illustrate these with examples from a teaching experiment focusing on whole‐class scaffolding language in a multilingual mathematics classroom (age 10–12). The empirical data led to a metaphorical distinction between online and offline enactment of key characteristics, during respectively outside whole‐class interaction. Diagnoses can namely also be made outside lessons, for instance by reading pupils' work; responsiveness can also be realised in adapting instructional activities; and handover to independence can also be fostered in the design of lessons. In addition to this layered nature (online vs. offline), whole‐class scaffolding is often distributed over time. Finally, whole‐class scaffolding is cumulative with pupils' independence emerging as the cumulative effect of many diagnostic and responsive actions over time. We suggest these three features are at the core of whole‐class scaffolding that is deliberately employed to foster long‐term learning processes.